A group of Siskiyou County teens had a week to remember recently at Camp LEAD.

Formerly called Camp Ford, the leadership camp is for teens heading into ninth grade.

The group of 50 students took part in leadership development activities as well as things such as rafting, swimming and volleyball.

This is the fourth year of the camp, which was put together by the Siskiyou Family YMCA, the Ford Family Foundation and Adventure Whitewater. The camp also featured 19 high school counselors.

Brady Svilich, program director at the YMCA and the camp director, said the goal is to give kids here in the county a positive outlet “to develop leadership skills. It’s leadership education that’s adventure-driven.” Svilich said the camp helped the kids bond with each other and hopefully will help them as they head to high school.

The camp helped participants to look at things such as how they and others communicate, how everyone has an unique way in expressing themselves, how to make good decisions and how to talk about the issues they feel affect their community. He said that five days were spent rafting on four sections of the Klamath River, which gave the teens an opportunity to work together to navigate the river. “They loved it,” Svilich said. ”For a lot of them it was their favorite part of the camp. A lot of teamwork goes into whitewater rafting.”

Svilich shared a few comments some of the campers made in a survey. "The best parts of Camp LEAD is I've learned to be a better person and not hide,” a camper wrote.

“I've learned to open up more and help others. I've learned to communicate better and it was so much fun. I had a lot of fun especially with volleyball, rafting and campfire." “The rafting was some of the best I've ever done,” one participant wrote. “Ittaught me to work with others and taught me new leadership skills.”

“Meeting new people was the best part of Camp LEAD because I got to learn about different things that they have encountered,” one camper wrote.

Svilich said that this year's high school graduates were the first to take part in the camp. He said that it's been an honor to see how many of those kids have become leaders during their time in high school.

“It’s really cool to see how they’re doing and the successes they’ve had the past four years,” he said.